Chapter 4

Popular
methodology
4.1 Approach, method, procedure, technique 54
4.2 Three and a half methods 55
4.3 Communicative language teaching 57
4.3.1 Teaching ‘unplugged’
4.4 Task-based learning 60
4.5 The lexical approach 62
4.6 Four old humanistic methods 64
4.7 A procedure (presentation, practice and production) 65
4.8 Which method? What approach? 68
4.8.1 What teachers do
4.8.2 Post-method and learning culture
4.9 Coursebooks and other materials 71
4.9.1 For and against coursebook use
4.9.2 How to use coursebooks
4.9.3 Using coursebooks more effectively
4.9.4 Choosing coursebooks
4.9.5 Designing our own materials
4.10 Looking forward 77
 Approach, method, procedure, technique
It is these methods, procedures and approaches which
influence the current state of English language
teaching

It is used to refer to theories about the nature of

language and language learning
Approach It describes how language is used and how its
constituent parts interlock.
It describes how people acquire their knowledge of the
language and makes statements about the conditions
which will promote successful language learning.
 A method is the practical classroom realization of
an approach.
Method Methods include various procedures and
techniques (see below) as part of their standard
fare.
 It is an ordered sequence of techniques
Procedure (First, you do this, then you do that ...)
It is smaller than a METHOD, and it is
bigger than a TECHNIQUE.
Example  A common technique when using
video or film material is called silent viewing.
Another technique is to tell all the students in a
Technique group to murmur a new word or phrase to
themselves for a few seconds just to get their
tongues round it before asking them to say it out
loud.
The use and misuse of these terms can make discussions of
comparative methodology somewhat confusing.

 Some approaches have to go in search of procedures and

techniques with which to form a method.
 Some methods start as procedures and techniques, which
seem to work and for which an approach is then developed.
 Some methods are explicit about the approach they
exemplify and the procedures they employ.
Students were given (in their own language)
explanations of individual points of grammar, and then
they were given sentences which exemplified these
points. These sentences had to be translated from the
target language (L2) back to the students’ first language
(L1) and vice versa.
Comments

 Language was mostly treated at the level of

the sentence only, with little study, certainly
at the early stages, of longer texts.
 Secondly, there was little if any consideration
of the spoken language.
 And thirdly, accuracy was considered to be a
necessity.
 • Reacting to the restrictions
of grammar–translation
• Teacher and the students
speaking together, relating
the grammatical forms they
the end of the nineteenth century should be learning to objects
and pictures, etc. in order to
establish their meaning.
 Grammar is learnt inductively (that is, the students
discover the rules from exposure to the language)
 It was considered vitally important that only the
target language should be used in the classroom.
 It created a powerful prejudice against the
presence of the L1 in language lessons
Audiolingualism

Using the stimulus–response–reinforcement

model, it attempted, through a continuous
process of such positive reinforcement, to
engender good habits in language learners.
This method relied heavily on DRILLS to form these
habits; substitution was built into these drills so that,
in small steps, the student was constantly learning and,
moreover, was shielded from the possibility of
making mistakes by the design of the drill.
Comments

Little placing of language in any kind of real-

life context.
When students are really concentrating on a drill,
their practice will certainly be ‘deliberate’ –
which is a good thing – but whether it will be
meaningful and mindful is quite another.
 Communicative language teaching

A shift away from a focus on how language was formed

(grammar and vocabulary, etc.) to an emphasis on what
language was used for.
Ideas of when and how it was appropriate to say certain things
were of primary importance.
Communicative language teachers taught people to invite and
apologise, to agree and disagree, alongside making sure they
could use the past perfect or the second conditional.
It was even possible, by identifying what people actually did
with language in their jobs.
Activities in CLT typically involve students in real or realistic
communication, where the successful achievement of the
communicative task they are performing is at least as important
as the accuracy of their language use.
Role-play and simulation (where students act out real
communication in a classroom setting) became very popular in
CLT.
The students had a desire to communicate something and a
purpose for doing it (perhaps because they wanted to close an
‘information gap’ between themselves and the people they were
talking to).
The reality for years
Carol Griffiths, for example, thinks that it may be more useful to view
‘traditional’ methods as complementary to ‘communicative approaches’
teachers are eclectic in their choices of what to do in the classroom using
a variety of different communicative and not so communicative
activities.

Zoltán Dörnyei wants a ‘principled communicative approach’ which

should ‘offer learners ample opportunities to participate in genuine L2
interaction’ (Dörnyei 2013: 16), but which also includes focus on form,
controlled practice and ‘declarative input’, i.e. explicit focused
language items.
ECLECTIC APPROACH IN TEACHING ENGLISH

Larsen-Freeman (2000) and Mellow (2000) both have

used the term principled eclecticism to describe a
desirable, coherent, pluralistic approach to language
teaching.
•ECLECTICISM involves the use of a variety of
language learning activities, each of which may have
very different characteristics and may be motivated by
different underlying assumptions.
•The use eclecticism is due to the fact that there are
strengths as well as weaknesses of single theory-based
methods. Reliance upon a single theory of teaching has
been criticized because the use of a limited number of
techniques can become mechanic.

•The teacher decides what methodology or approach to

use depending on the aims of the lesson and the
learners in the group. Almost all modern course books
have a mixture of approaches and methodologies.
 Teaching ‘unplugged’

A short provocative article suggesting that ELT needed

similar rescue action, notably a return to a materials-
and technology-free classroom in which language
emerges as teachers and students engage in a dialogic
relationship (Thornbury 2000).
Dogme ELT, in their description, has the following
features:
 conversation-driven (interactive talk in the classroom
drives procedures)
 materials-light (little pre-packaged material such as
coursebooks)
 emergent language (rather than following a
prescribed syllabus. Dogme teachers work with
learner language, and view learner errors as learning
opportunities.
 Task-Based Learning (TBL)

○ It is a natural extension of CLT.

○ Instead of language study leading to a task, the task

itself is the main focus and jumping off point for
SUBSEQUENT study later.
○ A typical TBL sequence: PRE-TASK, TASK
CYCLE, then Language focus.
Four old humanistic methods
Community language learning
Suggestopaedia
Total physical response
The Silent Way
THE SILENT WAY (CALEB GATTEGNO)

 Characterized by a problem-solving approach.

 Develops independence and autonomy and encourages
students to cooperate with each other.
–Learning is facilitated if the learner discovers or creates
rather than remembers and repeats what is to be learned.
–Learning is facilitated by accompanying (mediating)
physical objects).
–Learning is facilitated by problem-solving, the material to
be learned.
Sound-colour chart: Each colour symbolizes one sound.
  Sound-Colour Chart: The teacher refers students
to a color-coded wall chart depicting individual
Typical techniques

sounds in the target language - students use this

to point out and build words with correct
pronunciation.
 Teacher's Silence: Teacher is generally silent,
only giving help when it is absolutely necessary.
 Peer Correction: Students encouraged to help
each other in a cooperative and not competitive
spirit.
Self-correction Gestures: Teacher uses hands to indicate
that something is incorrect or needs changing - e.g..
using fingers as words then touching the finger/word
that is in need of correction.
Word Chart: Words are depicted on charts, the sounds in
each word corresponding in color to the Sound-Color
Chart described above - students use this to build
sentences.
Fidel Chart: A chart that is color-coded according to the
sound-color chart but includes the various English
spellings so that they can be directly related to actual
sounds.
 Suggestopedia
One of the innovative methods dating back to the
1970’s (Georgi Lozanov). Lozanov suggests that the
human brain could process great quantities of
material if simply given the right conditions for
learning, among which are a state of relaxation and
giving over the control of the teacher. Music is
central to this method.
•Learning is facilitated in an environment that is as
comfortable as possible, featuring softly cushioned
seating and dim lighting.
•"Peripheral" learning is encouraged through the
presence in the learning environment of posters and
decorations featuring the target language and various
grammatical information.
•The teacher assumes a role of complete authority and
control in the classroom.
TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

•TPR is an approach to teaching a second language, based on

listening linked to physical activities which are designed to
reinforce comprehension.
•TPR is a method developed by Dr. James J. Asher to aid
learning second languages.
•The method relies on the assumption that when learning a
second or additional language, that language is internalized
through a process of code-breaking similar to first language
development.
•Students respond to commands that require physical movement.
Total Physical Response
•Successful second language learning should be a parallel
process to a child’s first language acquisition.
•Appropriate activities can produce stress-free learning.
•Learners are encouraged to speak when they feel ready to
speak.
•Theory of language:
–a grammar-based view of language.
–verb in ımperative form.
•Theory of language learning: a stimulus-response view.
PPP (Presentation – Practice – Production)
The teacher introduces a situation which contextualizes the
language to be taught. The language is then presented.
The students practice the language, using accurate reproduction
techniques such as choral repetition (where they repeat a word,
phrase, or sentence all together with the teacher’s ‘conducting’)
and individual repetition.
Later, in a production phase, the students use the new language
to make sentences of their own.
Some drawbacks (page 66)
 Elements
of language teaching

Engage Study Activate

E S A
Controlled Free practice
practice
 Engage (E)
○ Activities and materials: games, music, discussions,
stimulating pictures, dramatic stories, amusing anecdotes,
etc.

○ Teachers can do their best to ensure that their students

engage with the topic, exercise or language they are going to
be dealing with by asking them to make predictions, or relate
classroom materials to their own lives.
 Study (S)

○ Study activities are those where the students

are asked to focus on the construction of
something, whether it is the language itself, the
ways in which it is used or how it sounds and
looks.

○ Students can study in a variety of different

ways.
 Study (S)

○ Some typical language areas for study might

be the study and practice of the vowel sound in
“ship” and “sheep”, the study and practice of
the third person singular of the present simple,
the study and practice of lexical phrases for
inviting, the study and practice of paragraph
organization, etc.
 Activate (A)

○ This element describes exercises and activities which are

designed to get students using language as FREELY and
COMMUNICATIVELY as they can.

○ Activate exercises include: role-plays, advertisement

design, debates and discussions, describe and draw, story
and poem writing, email exchanges, writing in groups,
etc.
○ Activation is not just about producing language in speech
and writing, but also in reading and listening.
Teaching sequences / procedures

Straight arrows

Boomerang

Patchwork
 Engage

Straight arrows
○
This procedure works at
lower levels for
straightforward language.
Study

Activate
 Boomerang
○ Engage
It is suitable for
students at
intermediate Study
and advanced
levels.

Activate
 ENGAGE

Patchwork
STUDY

ACTIVATE
EAASASEA patchwork sequence
 Patchwork
○ They are a mixture of procedure and mini – procedures,
a variety of short episodes building up to A WHOLE.

○ Such classes are very common, especially at

intermediate and advanced levels.

○ They provide an appealing balance between study and

activation, and between language and topic.
ECLECTIC APPROACH IN TEACHING
ENGLISH
Larsen-Freeman (2000) and Mellow (2000) both
have used the term principled eclecticism to
describe a desirable, coherent, pluralistic approach
to language teaching.
•ECLECTICISM involves the use of a variety of
language learning activities, each of which may
have very different characteristics and may be
motivated by different underlying assumptions.
•The use eclecticism is due to the fact that there are
strengths as well as weaknesses of single theory-
based methods. Reliance upon a single theory of
teaching has been criticized because the use of a
limited number of techniques can become mechanic.
•The teacher decides what methodology or approach
to use depending on the aims of the lesson and the
learners in the group.
• Almost all modern course books have a mixture
of approaches and methodologies.
ADVANTAGES OF AN ECLECTIC APPROACH
•Safety: The use of a variety of ideas and procedures from
different existing approaches and methods will increase the
chances of learning taking place.
•Interest: Teachers need to use different techniques to hold
the learners' attention.
•Diversity: Different learning/teaching contexts require
different methodologies.
•Flexibility: Awareness of a range of available techniques
will help teachers exploit materials better and manage
unexpected situations. Informed teaching is bound to be
eclectic.
argued that a ‘principled eclecticism’ mixes elements
from all these approaches, but says that all (or most)
lesson sequences should have three elements, Engage,
Study and Activate.
said that the three elements (ESA) can occur in a
different order, depending on the main focus of the
lesson. We saw three different sequences: ‘’straight
arrows’’, ‘’boomerang’’ and ‘’patchwork’’.